Mr. Smily

Moose started smiling in response to silly faces, high pitched voices, and cooing a week or so ago. At first it was almost exclusively Daddy who was the recipient of his happy grins, but everyday he seems to get a little more generous with them, smiling more often and at more people and things. Here are a couple of short videos we've caught!

First Bath et. al.

So we just gave Evander his first bath...he was sooooo stinky! Ok, not really, I'm just way way way behind on my posting. Since I'm starting to really get behind and since I have several other topics waiting in the wings I'm going to try and combine several posts here that I might've otherwise posted separately if our month had not been such a giant roller coaster. Hang on!!!

We gave Evander his first "real" (i.e. not sponge) bath on August 19th. He loved relaxing in the warm water until I started to wash him up. He wasn't so sure he liked that at all and it all went downhill from there. For the record he now LOVES every minute of his bath time, although he's still not too keen on that whole getting dressed thing that happens afterwards!

As you can tell Sofie was absolutely delighted by the whole bath time event, and she has spent many hours since then playing with Evander's bathtub.

Immediately after Evander's bath we dressed him in this special outfit that you may remember seeing Sofie in way back when (you can revisit here). Recall that this bunting has been worn by Aunt Janna, Ben, Uncle Kyle, cousins Lillian and Clayton, and big sister Sofie and we had a very special reason for choosing the 19th to snap some pictures of Evander in it. About four hours after these photos were taken the newest member of the extended family, cousin William Alexander, was welcomed into the world!

The bunting has been passed down to baby Will, who will surely be one of Evander's best buds! (Incidentally, you'll notice that I've added a new link on my blog list where you can read all about Will's adventures!)

On September 6th we all headed down to Grannie Gracie's house to enjoy the Labor Day holiday and Evander and Will got to meet each other for the very first time.

They weren't especially impressed, but I'm sure that will change with time :)

I just love this picture (stolen from Aunt DeAnna!) What proud grandparents! Will is practicing his dirtbike racing...it's totally in the blood :)

Bottle

Evander took his first bottle today while I went out ALONE! for the first time since he was born to get myself a haircut. Nana reported that he vehemently denied that weird plastic nipple thing for some time before he figured out that the stuff inside of the bottle tasted very familiar and maybe he was more interested than he gulp gulp gulp thought!

The last ounce was still resting in the bottle when I got home, since expressed breast milk is pretty much liquid gold and we exercise an extreme reluctance to discard it, and after I spent a minute or two checking out my new hairdo in the bathroom I returned to find Sofie, little mama that she is, doing this...

So we took a few minutes and fed him the rest of the milk together :) Evander didn't seem too traumatized by the whole bottle experience, although he has been pretty much attached to me since the moment I walked in the door as if to say, "Mom that whole bottle thing was ok and all, but this...you're not going to take this away from me...right?!!!"

One Month

Little big man you turned one month old last Sunday and oh what a cyclone of a month it was. After your rapid fire birth we brought you home to a very very affectionate big sister who hugged and kissed the whole family into a pretty solid summer cold. And, as if stuffy nosed 2 AM feedings greeted by a mommy who sounded like Darth Vader weren't fun enough, your poor little body decided a UTI would be the perfect topper. You landed yourself a four day stay at the children's hospital complete with eighteen puncture wounds and three catheterizations. It was enough to throw this mommy into a bit of a tailspin which she is just now starting to catch her bearings from. Through it all you've been a little fighting trooper, surely living up to your name, a good, strong man (child!)

You are enormous. I look at you and wonder how on earth you ever fit inside my belly, how you ever could have made your way out in one piece. Your body is completely different than Sofie's with your lanky arms and long, thin fingers and toes. You inherited my hands and feet and I love them on you. Your fuzzy little noggin is covered with the softest coating of downy hair. I love to rub it while you nurse. You love to eat and you are growing so fast, already in your 3-6 month clothes. I tease that you're a boob man. When you're hungry you shake your little head and then dive in like a fish going after a worm. When you're sleepy you nurse comfortably, sighing and making little crooked half asleep smiles, and when you finally pull away you nuzzle in as if you had a pillow.

When you are calm you are incredibly focused and your body relaxes as you stare contentedly off at the object of your choice as if you are analyzing its complexities. When you are active you grumble and grunt, waggling all your appendages in quick, jerky movements with a frustrated air. You are intense.

Evander, I have a feeling I'll always remember this month as one of the most challenging months of my life and I may never reminisce fondly about the circumstances surrounding it and how they made me feel, but meeting you has filled me with awe. It's hard for me to believe that just one month ago I had never smelled your little head, a scent so uniquely your own even fresh from a bath, or felt your little hands gripping tightly to my shirt, or heard you softly breathing, sighing softly in your sleep. I will always remember this month as the month I met you, and that's more than enough to make it one of the most incredible months of my life.

Labor Day

Happy Yesterday Was Labor Day!

Evander's labor story is FINALLY posted. Scroll down and check it out :)

E is for Evander

Anyone wondering how on earth Grey turned into Evander? I sure would be if I were you! Well...after yet another conversation with Ben in which he recounted the reasons he wasn't 100% thrilled with the name Grey (1. It's more of a nickname than a full name. 2. It's meaning isn't particularly meaningful.) I thought maybe I'd acquaint myself with some other options. After sticking my nose into some baby names websites for awhile I came across the name Evander and immediately felt attached to it. Not really that surprising when you consider that we were considering the names Evelyn, Evany, and Evangeline (just me...Ben hates that one) for a girl before we knew we were having a boy. Also, I think Evander is reminiscent of the names Oliver and Xavier which I'm fond of. I was really excited to run it by Ben because I was pretty confident he was going to like it too. Especially since it reminds me of the names Vance (which we both think is a great name that we might have considered if it wasn't Aunt Janna's married name) and Vaughn (another name that Ben is attached to but it belongs to both his uncle and his cousin already...Ben used to tease me and say he wanted to name his son Otto Vaughn Otto!) Evander also carries a solid meaning: good man or strong man, and some decent history too. In Roman mythology Evander was a Grecian hero, deified after his death, who brought the Greek pantheon, laws, and alphabet to Italy. He was said to have wisdom beyond that of all the Arcadians. So I wasn't too surprised when Ben jumped on the Evander bandwagon. We spent a couple of weeks trying it on for size and the rest is history.

Now the only question is...what should we call him?!

Nicknames I'm currently using include: Mister, Boss (because he is), Moose (because he's enormous), Pteradactyl (because he sounds like one when he gets mad), and Grey (we're all using this one accidentally from time to time!)

Nicknames associated with the name Evander include: Van, Vander, Andy, Vandy, and Evan. We're leaning towards Van at the moment, but I'm not completely sold on it. Ben has also suggested just plain E. Sofie's pronounciation, "Vanner" makes me grin :)

Uncle

Alright alright...I admit I'm having a mad case of writer's block and the labor story is nowhere near ready to post, but truthfully there is just so much I want to express and the words just aren't there to describe it. I'm going to try not to feel too guilty about taking my good ol' time to complete it, and in the meantime there are a million pictures that I want to post. Can you believe that Mr. Evander is already a whole week old?!!

I cropped the clock out of this picture, but it read 10:46 AM. Eleven minutes old and being weighed for the first time. By this time he had already pooped once. The midwife suspected he was actually 10+ pounds at birth. I'm still not quite sure how I carried around, let alone delivered, such a mammoth child!

Here's Daddy checking out his little boy for the first time...

...and Sofie checking out her baby brother for the first time :)

Footprints!

First bath!

This one reminds me an awful lot of the first picture of Sofie that I posted on the blog. You can see it here. You can definitely tell they are siblings!

This was Day 2 at the hospital, August 7th. It was the first time Sofie got to hold her brother.

Me with my snuggle bug. I wish they never grew too big for this!

Here we are on the 8th all ready to go home and waiting for transport. He'll never wear that outfit again :( Sofie never wore her homecoming outfit again either. I guess I make giant children!

Being wheeled out...

...and on our way home. We had to move the carseat straps up already!

Sweet sleepy profile.

Hanging out with Nana awake...

...and asleep.

Sofie's babies are really enjoying all of Evander's stuff. There always seems to be a baby in his carseat, swing, and bouncy seat!

Case in point. She instructed me to lay him down with the rest of her babies, and I coaxed her into laying down too :)

Our little Oompa Loompa. Aunt Barbie gave him these shoes and Sofie insists that he wears them when we leave the house!

A nursing mama's view.

Picture crazy mama took about twenty pictures of one week old Evander hanging out in his swing. This first one looks so much like some of Ben's baby pictures it's almost scary!

I think that'll about do for an update from our new family of four. We are busy working on adjusting to this new normal, trying to get as much rest as possible, and falling in love with this big little guy, but I'll do my best to post another update soon!